Hydraulic fracturing is a process used to increase the permeability of a hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir in order to increase the flow of oil and gas to the surface. While effective, hydraulic fracturing operations are resource intensive. For example, for hydraulic fracturing operations in a shale gas reservoir, each well requires an average of 400 tanker trucks to carry water and supplies to and from the fracturing site; requiring at times 8 million gallons of water to complete each fracturing stage, with each well requiring multiple fracturing stages. The water is mixed with sand and chemicals to create the fracturing fluid. In addition, approximately 40,000 gallons of chemicals are used per fracturing job. By some estimates, there are 500,000 active gas wells in the United States requiring approximately 72 trillion gallons of water. The source of water, the leak off of the fracturing water into the reservoir, and the treatment of recovered water have become serious issues with economic and environmental concerns.
One of the components in a hydraulic fracturing fluid is the proppant component. Proppants are used in the fracturing process to keep fractures open and permeable to the flow of hydrocarbons, including oil and gas, after the external pressure of the hydraulic fracturing fluid is withdrawn. Traditional proppants include solids comprising one or more of sand, geopolymers, ceramics, resin coated sand, and glass beads. The hydraulic fracturing fluid used to carry and place the proppant in the fracture generally contains water, polymer, crosslinker, fluid loss additives, flow back additives, surfactants, clay stabilizers, proppant, and gel breaker. The polymer is used to provide viscosity and keep the proppants suspended until they have reached their desired location in the fracture. The breakers are used to reduce the polymer viscosity, allowing the particles to settle and the liquid portion of the fracturing fluid to be returned to the surface when the external pressure is removed and the overburden pressure partially closes the fracture. The proppants remain in the fracture and form permeability channels to increase the oil or gas production.